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Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 7)

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                                     Round Two with Job’s Friends.

     Eliphaz spoke up again  and once more said that Job must have acted dishonestly towards his brother or not helped others where he could have. His view of God was that He must have been punishing Job for something he had done wrong!     How often we bring God down to our level! Every time we say, “I can’t see how God can allow this or that…”  we are making Him like us. We have to remember that God is God, His ways are far above our ways  (Isaiah 55:8-9) and He can see the wider picture of all things, the end from the beginning. He is infinite, we are only finite and very limited at that.

   Job began his answer….  “Oh, if only I knew where to find Him! I would lay my case before Him! I cannot find Him to put my arguments forwards because He is everywhere, from the east to the west! But I know I’ve followed His ways closely, and treasured His words. Others have ignored Him and He has let them go their way. They may be exalted for a short time, but it all turns to nothing in the end!”

  Then  Bildad spoke up again, but didn’t have much to say this time. As he contemplated God’s existence, he was lost for words… “Dominion and awesome might belong to God, and we can’t fathom His greatness. What can we, who are no better than worms,  say in the face of this?”

    Job had an answer for all of this….  “What’s the point of you talking? We all know of God’s greatness over His creation, the heavens and skies, the moon and the stars, and these are just the tip of the iceberg!”      Job continued this speech by then telling what his life had been like before these tragedies had come upon him. God’s blessings had been upon him in every way, he said, and he had experienced God’s presence with him at all times. His children were around him, and everything he had was prospering ….  “Those I met in the street were polite and always ready to speak with me”, he went on, “I was always ready to help people, and they blessed me for it. I was always fair and honest with others and they would listen to my advice. Nobody argued with me or answered back, and I lived like a king! Now people mock me and those younger than me won’t even speak to me! People keep way from me. I’m in constant pain, and it feels as though God himself has deserted me! My skin is tortured and I feel no better than the jackals or ostriches!”

   Job then went on to talk of his integrity before God….he had never entertained evil thoughts towards to the opposite sex, he had always been honest in his dealings, and helped those less fortunate. “I‘ve always trusted God for everything! I had an open home for anyone who needed a bed for the night, and I never did anything that needed to be covered up. Oh! If only there was someone who would stick up for me!”    Job truly felt forsaken and alone and although his friends were there with him, they were no comfort at all!  There may be times in our lives when we have felt like this, but we have the comfort of knowing that God never leaves His people. Paul could talk of all the bad things that had happened to him, but even though he suffered physically and begged the Lord to take his problem away, he had the comfort of knowing the Lord was saying to him, “My grace is sufficient for you!”  (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) So in our bad times, we too, can hang onto the fact that God sees and knows and will strengthen us to keep on going. Job chapters 22- 31

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 6)

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                                     More Friendly Advice!

     Bildad spoke up again…. “Job! You aren’t listening to what we say! Don’t you think we know a thing or two? You’re just like someone who is caught in a trap by the heel, and calamity will overtake you….”

    Don’t we all feel other’s condemnation of us when things go wrong for us? On the other hand, we must remember to say things that build up, rather than that which will pull down when people suffer calamities! It’s not necessarily what we say to their face, but often words of condemnation that we say to others about them behind their back.

   Job didn’t hold back when he answered Bildad… “Why can’t you can’t say anything helpful to me? Ten times now you’ve been reproaching me! Even if what you are saying is true, I’m paying for my mistakes now! I feel as though God is tearing me down on every side, no-one is being helpful to me…my friends and relatives keep away from me, my servants keep out of my sight, even my wife can’t stand the sight of my sores! Oh, I wish my words were written down! ( little did he know they were!) I would write them with an iron pen on a scroll of rock!”    Job then uttered these wonderful words of testimony in the midst of his misery…. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand on the earth…even if I die, I will see Him for myself! It doesn’t matter what you all say after all!”

      Then Zophar could not keep silent any  longer… “Look here, Job, don’t you realise that those who are wicked aren’t joyful, that even if they are the most important people in the world they won’t last?” He carried on in the same vein, insinuating that Job must be one of them to be suffering like he was.     “Don’t you know that they won’t last and that he will end up nothing; his food will turn sour in his stomach? He won’t enjoy his wealth after all, especially that which he has gained from oppressing others! God will send His burning anger on him and it will be as though he has arrows piercing right through him. He will end up losing everything he has….this is what God does to those who don’t follow Him!”

    Job  wasn’t slow to reply… “You listen carefully to what I’m saying! You can laugh at me later, but listen now! I’m talking to God, not you…why do the wicked prosper like they do? Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them, even when they scoff at God! They say what’s the point in praying anyway?”

   Even while Job was talking, the answer came to him… “Their destruction will come upon them in the end, and God will bring them to nothing. They can’t teach Him anything anyway! Even if they have everything down here, they will still die, and die without God! They will have to face Him in the end, and they will have nothing to say. You guys haven’t comforted me at all with all your words!”

    We must always look for the wider picture when calamities come upon us. God, Who knows the end from the beginning, could see the whole thing as a panorama that would unfold before them all in the end. We all know people who have suffered dreadful calamities in their lives, and yet things worked out in the end for them. Let us always keep this in mind, and look past our immediate distresses…..King David could say, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!”

(Psalm 30:5)                                                                           (Job, chapters 18-21)

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part Five)

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                            Zophar now spoke up….”You’re all talking too much and getting nowhere! Job, you think you know all the answers! If only we could hear what God has to say, He would tell us what this is all about……”     How often we feel like this!  In times of trouble, God seems to be far away. “You must have done something wrong, Job, for this to happen to you. If you put your sin away, then God will make things come right, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the way to be safe from further trouble”.

     Job was getting fed up with all these accusations and assumptions that he was a secret sinner. “It’s alright for you to talk! But I’m just as good as you are! There’s no need for people to laugh at me….just ask the animals, they know that God exists! We all know that He is in control of everything on earth, and that He makes the nations great and then pulls them down. I just wish I could speak directly to God, I would present my case as if I were in a court of law! You are all no help at all to me, you just condemn me out of hand!”      Job now makes a great statement of his faith in God….”Even if He kills me, I will still hope that He will listen to my reasons. I just want two things from Him…relief from this pain and then Him calling to me so I can answer! I know that we only live a few days and are then gone like a flower that withers away. A tree has more hope than we do…if it gets cut down then it will sprout again from its roots! But when we die, is there any hope?” Job seems to have reached the pit of despair…..”All this pain is like the wearing away of a mountain face by the continual running of water….nothing else counts in the face of this affliction!” What a lesson to us! Let us never waiver in our faith in times of trouble!

Then Eliphaz tries again,  and is even more condemning this time than the first time… “The trouble with you Job, is that you talk as though you know everything! You say wrong things, and you condemn yourself while you talk!”     He carried on in his rhetoric… “Were you the first man to be born? Do you know more than we do? You just listen to me! Those who turn against God get nowhere, all that they do turns to dust! You can’t get anywhere fighting against God.”    Job was fast losing patience with his friends and replied to this by saying, “I’ve heard all this before…a miserable lot of comforters you all are! You don’t know what it feels like…I feel full of wrinkles, and it’s as though God has taken me and shaken me to bits. I’ve cried until I can cry no more, and my friends all scorn me. It won’t be long before I’m dead, and then I can be buried. I feel just like a shadow, and there’ll be nothing of me left by the time this is all over!

     Perhaps you have felt like this at times….but take heart, God never leaves His own. In the midst of all these trials, Job was learning things that he would never forget, and that he would be able to pass on to others in the future. . (Job, chapters 11-17)

                                                                               

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part Four)

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     Job began to speak, “I wish I’d never been born, to feel like this! It’s a pity my mother ever gave birth to me!” He was in such pain that he had no rest, and he was wondering why God had allowed this calamity to come upon him….      This is a very human thought, one which we probably have all had at times when things go wrong. But we need to remember there is a much wider picture than what we can see at the moment, and that God will work things out in the end.     Eliphaz spoke up and replied to this (chapters 3-4)… “Don’t you know that God looks after those who follow Him? You’ve helped others when they’ve been in trouble, and now trouble has come to you and you complain!”     He went on, “I’ve had frightening experiences before today and I know we can’t stand before God….this trouble must have come from God to correct you for something, Job;  but things will come right in the end. Listen to what I’m saying.”    Job  replied to this by saying, “Oh, if only God would listen to me and take me away! Then I might be comforted instead of going through this time of distress. I feel like someone travelling through a desert and not able to find any water…I’ve never done any wrong to anyone!

     Bildad, the next friend, now spoke up…”Your words are like the wind, Job! You are missing the point; you must be sinning secretly for God to treat you like this!”      Some of us have suffered comments like this over the years, and there is no comfort in being told where you’ve gone wrong!      Bildad continued….”There is always a reason for everything that happens…swamp weeds can’t grow where there is no water, and those who forget God will reap the consequences!  God doesn’t help those who forget Him, but cheer up, things will come right in the end!”     Job replied, “I know what you are saying is right, but how can a person stand against God? He is so great and mighty! He has made the stars in the sky, and does wonderful things we can’t understand. Even though I know I am innocent, I can’t answer Him. Things just continue to go wrong! God is not a human being like we are, that I can answer Him! He made me like I am, and it seems that He is destroying me now. I wish He would tell me where I’ve gone wrong! Oh, leave me alone, so I can find some comfort!”

     When our friends suffer from some disaster, we must make sure to not try to figure out where the blame lies….this is no comfort at all, and does nothing to help whatsoever! It is better just to sit there quietly, and get them the things they need for their comfort. If you can’t be there with them to help, then just a quiet phone call or text now and then to remind them that they are not forgotten.                                                                                                 (Job, chapters 3-10)

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things happen to Good People? (Part three)

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Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?  Part Three. 

                                    Job’s Further Trial.

     In the second chapter of the book of Job, we now have a another picture of the council of God meeting, with Satan present once more. Once again God asks Satan “What have you been doing?” with the answer that he had been roving backwards and forwards over the earth. We can rest assured, that just as he was doing that then, he will still be doing it today, and with all the crime and violence that is going on, it is obvious he is not idle!      God said to him, “Have you taken notice of Job? He still holds firm to his convictions in spite of losing everything he had.” “Ho ho,” replied Satan, “You touch his health and it will be a different story!” “Alright,” God replied, “He is in your power, but you are not to take his life.”

    We see from this conversation that Satan can only go so far in touching God’s people. We know that God allows certain things to happen to us to correct us and teach us more of His comfort. Paul said that his affliction (whatever it was), was a messenger of Satan to keep him humble and dependent on God  (2 Corinthians 12:7)    This answers the age old question of “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” We see from Job’s reply to his wife’s comment, that he too, thought this disaster had come on him from God. We all tend to blame God when some circumstance  outside our control brings disaster to us. Rather, we should look on these things as corrections and times of growing in His knowledge.

   Satan went out from God’s presence thinking he had Job this time, and chose the worst thing he could think of to torment him with….being covered with boils! There was no rest for Job with this….he could not sit or lie comfortably anywhere!    In spite of Job being such a devout and godly man, yet there were still things for him to learn from this experience, so this trial had a double point. It was showing Satan (and his cohorts) that there was a man who would remain firm in his convictions, no matter what happened to him, and at the same time teach him (Job) more valuable lessons about God’s faithfulness.

   This time Job’s trial really begins. His three friends heard about all the calamities that had befallen him, and how he was now in worse straits than ever with his health having given out. So they all came to visit him, to sympathise with him and show their support.    When they arrived, they were shocked at just how bad he was! They hardly recognised him as the person they knew! They showed their shock by weeping loudly and tearing at their clothes. Each of them sat down with dust on their heads, and then just sat there with him not saying a word! They stayed like that for seven days before they started talking….Job’s pain was so great with the boils that covered him, and he made matters worse by scraping the tops off them with a scraper of some sort. But even that, as they began to talk to him, paled into insignificance against what they had to say. It would have almost been better if they had all kept their mouths shut!

   What a lesson for us to learn! For those in deep grief it is some times better to say nothing than to even say “I know what it’s like for you!” Even when we’ve been through some traumatic experience, no-one else can step into your mind and know how you feel, as everyone is different.   

     So next time we will look at Job’s friends’ advice and see what we can learn from it all…..

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People (part two)

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     Last week we saw God calling His council together and how Satan also attended it. God challenged Satan to find a man who was better than His servant Job. Job was as righteous as a man could be, and he followed God with a  perfect heart. Satan said to God, “Isn’t he following You for what he can get out of it?  You protect him from everything bad, but if You let me get at him, he will curse You to Your face!” But God knew His man, and He gave Satan permission to do his worst to Job without touching Job’s person. This is how it happened…..

The next day, Job got up early as he usually did, and made the morning sacrifice for himself and his wife. Then he made another sacrifice to cover each of his children. As he did this, he prayed for each of them, as he did every day. “Lord”, he said, “Please help the boys to stand firm for you; help them to resist temptations, and always be helpful to their mother and sisters. I pray for the girls, Lord that they will not be vain with how they look, but that they will try their best to be beautiful with their minds and their speech.”    Job knew that his eldest son was putting on a party that day for his brothers and sisters, and he hoped that everything would go well for them all. While he was sitting there after breakfast thinking about them, he saw one of his servants rushing up the path. He could tell something was wrong.

“What’s the matter?” he called out as the man got close enough to hear. “We were out in the field ploughing with the bullocks and the donkeys were there beside them when a marauding tribe from over the hill came and rounded them up, killing all the herdsmen, and I’m the only one who got away!” With that, he fell down on the ground panting with the run, and fright at what he had seen.

    The man had hardly finished telling Job this when another servant came panting up. “Oh!,” he said, “There was a massive lightning storm over the paddock where the sheep were, and they have all been struck dead as well as the other servants there. I’m the only one who managed to get away to tell you!”   

A third servant came panting in from another direction and said, “The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yes, and killed the servants with swords; and I only am escaped alone to tell you.”

Job hardly had time to take all this in when another servant came rushing in from the direction of the oldest boy’s house. “Oh, oh,” he wailed when he saw Job, “Your sons and your daughters were eating their meal and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house when there was a terrific gust of wind rushing in from the desert like a tornado, and the roof was lifted off and the whole thing collapsed on everyone else in the house, and they are all dead! I’m the only one to  escape and tell you!”

   Job had been sitting down all this time, and now he stood up and tore his long robe off his shoulders. He went inside and shaved the hair all off his head to show how upset he was. His wife and servants wondered how he would cope with all this bad news and the disasters that had happened. But he didn’t curse or swear, or even complain. It didn’t even enter his head to ask God why this had all happened.   

Instead, he got down on his knees and prayed in front of everyone left in his house, and said, ” I was born naked with nothing, and I will go back to God the same way, with nothing. The LORD gave me these things, and the LORD has taken them away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”     In all these disasters Job didn’t sin or complain and blame God foolishly. He had truly shown a godly attitude to a disastrous situation, just as God had known he would.

    What a lesson this is to us today!  Here was a man who had just received bad news about his family and all his livestock and servants. All he could do was to say that God was blessed in all that He does! He didn’t blame God for these disasters that had befallen on him, he took it all on the chin as it were.

     But that is not the end of the story of Job, and we will see next time what happened next to Job and why it came about.

Life Lessons

Why do Bad things Happen to Good People?

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                                  Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

    A good friend of ours was ill for a couple of weeks and in the end she went to the doctor when her breathing became difficult. After numerous tests, she was told that she had an aggressive type of lung cancer. Needless to say this left everyone who knew her in a state of shock. “Why her?” people were asking, “She did so much good around the place!!”    People often ask this question….it just seems that life isn’t fair!! We do the best we can and then things go wrong for us! I got to thinking about this age-old question and then thought about a man in the Bible whose name was Job (pronounced Jobe). He was a good man who always did the best he could and then he lost everything. But reading this story  will give us a picture of why this happened which will help us to see things differently and put them in a wider picture when things go wrong for us too.    Let’s turn to the book of Job in the Bible and see what it says about him….

  In chapter one, verse one, we read….”there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one who feared (respected and reverenced) God and who hated evil.” So we see that Job always did his best and as we read down the chapter, we see the things that he did for himself and for his family. Let’s turn it into a story……

   One day, God’s team of angels came to report to Him. God noticed a shiny, glistening, sneaky looking one among them who  didn’t usually come, and recognised him instantly. “Where have you come from, Satan?” He asked. “I’ve been walking up and down all over the place,” Satan replied shiftily. “Have you seen any person as good as My servant Job is?”, God asked, “No-one else is as good in the whole world as he is….he loves Me and hates everything evil! He makes me an offering every day, not only for himself but also for his family.” “Ho”, sneered Satan looking at God, ” No wonder he is so good! You look after him on every side, and have given him all he’s got! I bet if you took it all away from him it’d be a different story! He would curse You to Your face if that happened!!”     God knew His man, and He knew He could trust Job to do the right thing. “OK,” He said to Satan, “We’ll see. I’m allowing you to take away everything that he has. I know he will stand firm for Me.”  Satan chuckled gleefully. ” I’ll make him sorry for following God’s ways. I can beat him!”    So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD…..

So you can see that more goes on behind the scenes, than we know about, and next time we will see what happened.

Life Lessons

Consequences !

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I was talking to a friend this morning and he was saying how there don’t seem to be consequences any more for people’s actions. Young people today don’t seem to be being taught that our choices and actions will always bear consequences, for good or bad. When we older ones were growing up, woe betide us if we did wrong, whether at school or at home….we knew what the consequences would be!

       He was saying that the young years are when people make the greatest choices of their lives when they have had the least experience of life, and have to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives. For instance, when we see how the young ones today are decorating themselves up with tattoos all over the flesh….this is one example of a choice with a consequence of being stuck with that for the rest of their lives. I look at my eighty plus year arms now, and feel very thankful they haven’t been decorated like that….they look bad enough like they are, and I can’t imagine what they would look like if they were covered with tattoos on the drooping and wrinkled flesh that my arms now are!!!

     But there are worse scars in a person’s life than merely outward decorations, scars that are the results of wrong choices in earlier years. Some of these can never be rectified….they can be confessed and put behind them to go on in life, but the consequences of those choices can never be changed or altered. The memories of broken lives and relationships will go on into the future. No matter how much we try to forget them (and we can), others will remember them and who know when they will be dragged up out into the open once more.

     We are seeing this at present with prominent people in the news who have covered up wrong doings of the past, but now they are being dragged into court to either be exonerated or charged. But the stain will still be there.

      What a wonderful blessing it is that when we confess our sins and mistakes to God, He will not only forgive them, but will throw them into the depths of the sea never to be held against us or remembered by Him! So let us always remember these things, and if we make mistakes and are bearing the consequences of our foolishness now, let’s put it right with our Maker while there is still time. The day may come when it will be too late, and many a person has died with these wrong choices they have made still against them.